Overview
- On Friday, Paraguay midfielder Miguel Almirón received a straight red card after covering his mouth while speaking to Turkey's Mert Muldur, becoming the first player at the 2026 World Cup dismissed under the new rule.
- Referee Ivan Barton used a VAR pitchside review to confirm the gesture and issued the red card after Muldur drew officials' attention to the exchange.
- Under tournament disciplinary rules the straight red carries an automatic one-match ban so Almirón will miss Paraguay's decisive group game against Australia.
- Paraguay coach Gustavo Alfaro said Almirón apologised to team-mates and accepted the ruling, while players, coaches and commentators have questioned whether a red card is a proportionate sanction for a brief, habitual gesture.
- The rule was adopted by IFAB after a Champions League incident involving Gianluca Prestianni and Vinícius Júnior and is intended to prevent unprovable discriminatory or abusive language, but its first World Cup enforcement highlights tensions in policing habitual on-field behaviour and using VAR to judge intent.